School Yoga Classes Are Religious Indoctrination, Say Parents: It emphasizes fitness, it is something that stude...

Yoga has become ubiquitous in many public schools’ physical education programs and for good reason. It emphasizes fitness, it is something that students of varying athletic ability can do, it does not require elaborate equipment, and it helps students do what we all need to do — let go of that tenseness in our shoulders, breathe, relax. But some parents in the Encinitas Union School District north of San Diego contend that classes in a pilot yoga program amount to religious indoctrination and are, therefore, a violation of First Amendment rights. (Yes, before reading further, breathe .) A small group of parents has been protesting outside of Encinitas’ Paul Ecke Central Elementary School. As the mother of a first-grader, Mary Eady, says in the New York Times , Theyre not just teaching physical poses, theyre teaching children how to think and how to make decisions. Theyr...